Defense grills cop who questioned Thomas

TROY -- Despite telling Adrian Thomas otherwise numerous times while eliciting a videotaped confession, police never had a reason to believe the murder suspect could provide information that could save his son's life, Thomas's attorney argued Thursday.

Ingrid Effman, a public defender, sought to highlight nearly every lie Sgt. Adam Mason told Thomas in some nine hours of interviews, during which the defendant eventually admitted to slamming 4-month-old Matthew Thomas down on a bed in anger three times. At that time, the infant was clinically brain-dead at Albany Medical Center Hospital.

Mason was never told by Thomas's wife that she suspected her husband injured the child on Sept. 20, 2008, the night before he was hospitalized, and the detective was bluffing in the interview when he told Thomas he had just spoken with doctors who needed additional information, Mason admitted under questioning from Effman.

"You suggested repeatedly to Adrian Thomas that something he could tell you could help keep his son alive, correct?" she asked him, to which the former detective responded affirmatively.

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Effman, her voice rising, attempted to ask Mason at one point if he would falsely admit to a crime if he believed doing so would save his child's life. But Judge Andrew Ceresia sustained an objection by First Assistant District Attorney Arthur Glass, and Mason did not need to answer the question.

The child was not expected to survive upon arrival at Albany Med, doctors have testified. Mason admitted he was aware of that when Thomas confessed.

As he did during pre-trial hearings, he freely admitted that he lied to Thomas many times to obtain the confession that jurors saw on video Wednesday. Tricking defendants into confessing is a common, and legal, interrogation technique used by law enforcement.

"I lied to him because I wanted him to trust me and tell the truth," Mason testified.

The defense has argued that the confession was coerced, and Effman noted repeatedly Thursday that slamming the child against a bed was mentioned first by police, not the defendant.

Once the prosecution concludes its case, the defense is expected to call experts to testify that child died from septicemia, or a blood infection -- a cause of death the prosecution's doctors disagree with, though they admit the child had numerous signs of the infection.

If septicemia were in fact the cause of death, an admission by Thomas that trauma he inflicted caused his son to eventually die would constitute a false confession, Effman argued.

But fluid on the child's swelled brain, seen by the jury on a CT scan image Thursday, indicates a more violent cause, the prosecution believes. Dr. John Waldman, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Albany Med, testified Thursday morning that while it was impossible to determine how long the fluid had been there, it was caused by traumatic event.

"We're talking about a serious application of force to the infant's skull to cause these injuries," he said.

As she did earlier this week with Dr. Walter Edge, the doctor who supervised the infant's hospital care, Effman harped on the septicemia angle. But while Waldman admitted the child exhibited at least a half-dozen symptoms of the infection and may very well have had it, he said it didn't explain the subdural hematomas inside his skull.

"He might have had sepsis. But I don't think it caused his death," Waldman said.

Waldman was part of a consultation for the infant, but never treated him directly. There was nothing for a neurologist to do for him at the hospital, he testified.

"Unfortunately, Matthew had no evidence of neurological activity when we saw him," the doctor said. "He was brain-dead."

Thomas told police in the videotaped interviews that he slammed the child down in frustration three times following arguments with his wife Wilhemina Hicks, who was upset with his lengthy stint of unemployment. At times crying, he expressed remorse for any injury he caused his son during the interviews.

He faces a charge of second-degree murder, which can carry a sentence of up to life in prison.

The prosecution will continue to call witnesses today. The defense will likely not begin to present its case until next week.